NY Wineries Hit hard

[JohnT]

I heard on the radio this morning that New York State wineries are expected to experience a 40% decrease in their grape crop this year. This is due to the severe winter we they had. The news blurb continued to say that the NY state government is going to allow 40% of all grapes used in NY state wines to be source from other states.

I wonder if other states will do the same. I also wonder if this will have an impact on the price of grapes this year? Last I have heard, the price of grapes this year is going to be on par with last year.

 

[Runningwolf]

John, attached is a link to the latest news in the Lake Erie Region up to the Finger Lakes.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-reg...e-grape-crops-varies-along-lake-erie-20140812

 

[ffemt128]

Interesting article Dan. I knew the area was hit hard.

 

[Floandgary]

Not only the harsh winter, this entire season was extremely wet so 2014 will not be a banner year! West coast should be producing some exceptional crops this year!

 

[Chateau Joe]

Yeah, like Flo and Gary mentioned, this mild summer has pushed the harvest back at least a week or two this year. Just talked with Fulkersons and they will not be selling juice till the 19th this year. The good news with that is there will be more choices each weekend instead of the usual 5-6.

I have talked with a lot of wineries this summer around Seneca Lake and the damage is sporadic. Some devastated some no damage at all.

Up here in northern NY, the Seaway Wine Trail was hit really hard. Some wineries lost almost all of their vines. What grapes we have up here are tertiary and are much smaller. I would assume the same for the Finger Lakes.

 

[grapeman]

We fared much better up here Joe in the Champlain Valley. While we lost a couple minor varieties, ones like Frontenac, Marquette, La Crescent, St. Pepin and even Leon Millot are hanging a bumper crop. I just did a TV interview for the local station today talking about it. We did get a notice from NY AG & Markets a couple days ago that we may be able to purchase replacement grapes from out of state (which is not normally allowed as a Farm Winery).

 

[Runningwolf]

Not only the harsh winter, this entire season was extremely wet so 2014 will not be a banner year!

Yes it has been a wet cool year, this is a good thing this year. Many vines were damaged and we fully expected to have to rip out vineyards and start over. But there was just a tad bit of life left in the root stock. Due to the cool wet weather the trunks were able to send up suckers producing new vines. Had it been hot and dry they would have stressed out too much and it would have been a total kill. Now the set back is 1-2 years instead of 3-4 years.